Things on the Up!

It's only been a week since the last blog, but sooo much has been happening, especially on the poker front, and a bit on the golf too.

Last Monday I took down the PFU Session game for the first time this series. I actually turned up with my A-game and rode the waves to finally beat Oberlaie heads-up. I'm probably still out of the running, but it was good to put in a good showing at long last.

On to Friday and It was TPC time. We nearly got a rare appearance from the man Dai, but he called off sick at the 11th hour. We were also without chef Pickers, so it was down to me to feed the troops with the sort of gourmet food the TPC was built on - Cisco Nachos :) Unfortunately for me, the food was probably the highlight of the night, as I probably played the worst poker I've seen in a long time! Absolutely card dead, and no let up of calling from fishes Pete and Toobad. It was my first live outing with my new PFU card protector, which I got the piss taken out of me for royally! It is quality though so I'm going to stick with it. The first game saw a cheery Mez playing some loosey goosey poker, Petey went crazy and earned himself 2nd spot and first cash of his TPC career, and luckbox Toobad took home top spot making his previous results start to look like less of a fluke! I finally pushed with A5 on the button to be called by A9 and bomb out quite disappointed. After halftime food I was back with renewed hope, but ended up being dealt complete garbage. I even threatened to walk out of my own house if I got the same cards again after being dealt T6o twice in a row. Of all the crazy things I've ever seen, I actually had to follow through when I got deal T6o the very next hand!! It wasn't to be my night, and I think I went out in 4th. Chazizzle took down the last game of the night in a heated battle with with Mez, proving he's got the game as long as he stays away from the suited connectors. The leaderboard is hotting up also with 4 months gone, with the biggest surprise so far being that Tankimus still hasn't cashed once in 6 attempts!

Then saturday rolled around, and after winning a seat to the 100k on Pacific for $14, I settled in for a long old night. We started with $10k of chips, and I managed to up my stack in the very first hand with KK when someone got fruity and thought they could push me around! After that I folded the night away mostly until I got involved with a hand in the BB. Chips went flying on the flop, for some reason I just knew I was ahead - which I was, but he was on a draw which hit the very next card. So that was that - bit of a let down really.

On to the golf, which is starting to look brighter. I had a leisurely range session on Sunday, which was a prelude to a lesson I had booked up on Monday. It went quite well as it goes, with my grip now adjusted and a better setup I just need to put a bit of time in to make it sweet.

Another PFU session last night didn't quite see the heroics of the previous week, but I did manage to make the final table beating Siash and Mez in our respective bets. I eventually went out in 7th after mixing it up raising with KTs, only to be outkicked when top pair fell. Another hand to stick in the memory bank and try not to make the same mistake again, other than that a good showing. Can't forget to mention midway through the tourny I had KK cracked by KQ when Gaz (I think it was) hit runner runner QQ to take the allin pot - what are the odds of that!

Another epic entry nearly over! I'll just finish by saying I think I might be out of my downswing. It lasted for about $300 (10 buyins) but I'm now happily back again around my peak. To be honest, I didn't think I had been playing that badly, just some very crazy cards, bad beats, and coolers over the last week or so. I'm sure that's about as bad as it could have got too, although I'm always ready for the next bout of variance. All in all, I'm feeling comfortable at the $30 level and hope it wont be long before moving up again.

Variance

It's a funny ol' monster, but the swings in poker can sometimes be quite amusing. I made my peace with variance quite a while ago, and it's improved my game immensely. However, every now and again running bad, especially when on the bubble, makes you realise how poker can be just as frustrating as golf sometimes :) I remember not so long ago this would have really affected me and I would probably have gone on tilt losing plenty more buyins as a result. These days though it's a 'take it on the chin' and move on. Regardless, everyone needs a good humoured vent, so I decided to start a thread (here) on the PFU just for my own games - call it therapy if you like!

Other than that it's been quite a decent weekend. Managed to get out on range on Friday followed by a round of golf on Saturday with Mez. Had quite a bad hangover from a Friday night, so it was buggies or nothing in my state. Another usual round for me carding anything from a quadruple bogey to a sweet birdie. It's been an up and down start to the golfing summer, but I honestly think I'm not far away from putting a decent round together. Maybe I'll sneak a lesson in before the next outing too.

Also managed to get down to the casino yesterday to play in a £20 freeze-out. It was Easter so reasonable quiet but they managed a field of about 42 for the afternoon game. Not surprisingly I was a bit card-dead for most of the day. I picked up the dirties (JJ) in one hand, only to get one caller who hit his set on the flop. Luckily I managed to get away from that one without being completely burnt, but then struggled as the blinds went up quite quickly. Problem with live games is that you get less hands per hour than you would do online. So even though it's 15 minutes per level, it's the equivilent to a turbo online which eventually turns into a crapshoot. I eventually got crippled pushing with ATs only to run into the short-stack's QQ. Finally went out in about 15th hoping to quintruple up with 34s! Good banter nonetheless. I made some money back at skill-bingo on the video machine though - I'm a god at that game :)

Ticking Along

Not a massive amount of poker being played recently - I'm probably going to blame that on actually being busy at work and xbox distraction! I really should get more games in though as I'm playing reasonably well.

My $30 SNG quest is ticking along nicely though, showing a profit and feeling more at ease at this level. There are definitely some serious donkeys out there, and I often wonder how they can keep coming back for more punishment. I guess they are the ones with the bad gambling problems that friends and family keep warning me about when I mention poker! - It's a skill game I tell them, but they still don't get it.

Yet more session action last night (even though I was an hour late!) and I bombed out in 11th losing my usual bets with Mezza and Siash. It was rather harsh though if I do say so myself. Dan had been reraising every (and I mean every!) single time I opened. I finally get dealt the 'dirties' (pocket Js) ready for his reraise, only for him to luckbox being dealt QQ. Shocking lol. Happier with my game though and the banter is always top notch.

3 of the PFU boys are off to the Irish Open tomorrow - L6, Cheesies, and Aaron. It's great that they've won seats and hopefully the forum will be buzzing on the rail. Apparently it's on TV in a few weeks too, so that'll be a good watch. I have to get myself in one of these big live events sooner or later - I guess that wont start happening until I start registering for the sats though! Many things I need to kick myself into gear about, including arranging some bloody 2009 holidays - god knows I deserve one. I've even been into the office about 6 of the last 8 working days - I must be ill.

On a non-poker front, Man Utd have had a few eventful days - coming from behind against Villa in epic fashion to win 3-2 and stay on track for the Premiership. Then they played Porto in the CL and ended up 2-2 but an absolutely cracking game, playing some good football, Rooney looking sharp, just a shame we can't defend for toffee at the moment.

Right, that's me done for the day. I'm just railing Gj and Graeme on Pacific after missing out jumping in the game. I'll hopefully then get more than the 4 hours of sleep I got last night - ah the joys of being a night owl :)

Poker Library

I've been threatening to do this for a while now, so here it is. Just a quick run down of books I have in the collection, and maybe a recommendation or two :)

Harrington on Hold 'Em Tournament Vol I II III

By far the best books I have ever bought. Easy reading and all the examples are clear and have a point. He doesn't preach or dictate how you should play, merely suggests the way he would do things, and makes you think about situations. Although he's known as quite a tight player, the merits of different styles are also talked about. Although his line on things are a perfect grounding for any developing player, I say. Vol I talks about the abc's of poker - cards to play, pot odds, continuation bets etc, Vol II builds upon this first book with adjustments, inflection point, moves, and situational poker, and Vol III is purely an examples book that walks through topics using real hands and great discussion. Quality, if you don't have these books, buy them!

Cisco Rating 10/10

Harrington on Hold 'Em Cash Vol I II

Of course when the boy brought out these 2 new books, I'm had to get them. All the great structure and easy reading of the tourny ones, and pitched at the tourny player wanting to move into cash. He talks about the subtle differences between the two, how big hands like AK lose their value, stack sizes, leverage and much more. The impressive thing about reading these books is that the topics help improve your all-round poker game and not just cash. It gets you thinking about sooo many little things. The examples again are great, and as with all the Harrington books, you can't help but feel he wrote it just for you.

Cisco Rating 10/10

Super System II - Doyle Brunson

Old school poker that just about anyone who studies the game will have in their collection somewhere. Doyle is largely responsible for the explosion of poker, writing one of the first books that taught players the secrets of the game without them having to find out the hard way through years of experience. Some solid poker in here, but I don't think the book is particularly well written in terms of explanation or easy reading. Doyles big thing is 'putting a man to the test for all his chips' in different ways and situations. Still class though, a bit like Star Wars :)

Cisco Rating 6/10

Holdem Wisdom for all Players - Daniel Negreanu

Really basic book that covers a lot of hints and tips for beginners. Probably a bit too simple for me, even at the level I was playing when I bought it. I probably wouldn't recommend this one.

Cisco Rating 2/10

Power Holdem Strategy - Daniel Negreanu

I had big hopes for this one. It was supposed to be the new 'Super System' and up there with the classics, and Negreanu has been a favourite player of mine for a while, so really wanted to it to be great. Unfortunately with that much hype it's always going to be a disappointment. Parts of the book were written by friends and consisted of poker articles at best, added it seemed to pad things out. The best section, as you might imaging, was Danny's insight into smallball poker. It's his style, and a very useful bullet to add to anyones poker gun. If the rest of the book had been at this level it would have been a new bible, sadly though you are left wondering if that's all Negranau has in the tank.

Cisco Rating 6/10

Full Tilt Poker Strategy Guide

A compilation of articles written by some of the top pros. Lots of nuggets of information but not a patch on Harrington. Always good to read different viewpoints though.

Cisco Rating 6/10


Caros Book of Tells - Mike Caro

Another old school book. Does a unique job of interpreting body language and poker tells and turns them into a valued edge. Obviously slightly more geared to the live game, but a good read none-the-less.

Cisco Rating 7/10

The Theory of Poker - David Skalassky

One of the first books I bought and highly thought of in poker circles. It's quite a maths based book and Skalassky is not the best writer in the world, but if you can cope with that it's well worth it's reputation. The main 'fundamental theorum of poker' is a great concept to get to grips with, and one that should always be at the core of your game.

Cisco Rating 8/10

Every Hand Revealed - Gus Hansen

This is a book based on Gus's Aussie Millions adventure which he eventually won. After every hand he recorded notes into a dictaphone about how he played, reads he made, and other observations. I think he was always planning on writing a book with it, but it was a bonus that he came 1st. A great read in my opinion - Gus plays a loose aggressive game, which is probably a million miles from my own style, but it's interesting to see how he makes it work. There are some ideas I've added to my play off the back of it too, as it's always good to mix things up a little :)

Cisco Rating 7/10

Winning Low Limit Holdem - Lee Jones

It was probably the first book I ever bought and the only one that I have that covers limit poker. Although it's not really a format I play there are still some good lessons to learn in here - knowing when to get away from hands, leverage, and eeking out that small edge whenever you can all adds up.

Cisco Rating 6/10

That's all I have for now, but I've got an order in for a Hold Em SNG book by Moshman currently, which is suppose to be quite good. I've also got a number of ebooks that I've got to get around to reading, but it's just finding the time.

If you hadn't guessed I love reading about poker and trying to improve my game. Books, forums, articles, discussions, all a big help. I'm a long way off from where I want to be, but hopefully heading in the right direction.